The present invention relates to a developing apparatus in which toners supplied on a toner bearing body are formed as a developer agent layer having a predetermined thickness according to a toner layer thickness regulating member and an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductive body is visualized according to this developer agent layer and an image forming apparatus having the developing apparatus.
In a conventional developing apparatus, in generally a developing apparatus having a following constitution is known, namely a toner bearing body is supported rotatively by a housing of a developing apparatus and a toner layer thickness regulating member which is installed on this housing is opposed against the toner bearing body and further a toner thin layer is formed on the toner bearing body according to this toner layer thickness regulating member.
Further, the toner layer thickness regulating member is constituted by a plate shape holding member in which a friction regulating member such as a rubber plate is installed at a tip end thereof and this holding member is installed to screw holes of the housing through screw members and then the rubber plate being served as the friction regulating member is contacted to the toner bearing body.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese patent laid-open publication No. Hei 1-309080, a developing apparatus is constituted in which a toner bearing body is supported rotatively to a housing by a supporting shaft and making the supporting shaft as a standard a toner layer thickness member is positioned.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese patent laid-open publication No. Sho 55-89869, a developing apparatus is constituted in which a mechanism for interconnected supporting a toner bearing body and a toner layer thickness regulating member is provided, and by regulating the coefficients in linear expansion of these components a positioning accuracy is improved.
In the above stated conventional techniques, it is devised to aim to position accurately the toner bearing body and the toner layer thickness regulating member and to form uniformly the toner thin layer. Recently, an uniformity performance about an image quality is requested to obtain a high quality performance and also a high precision performance.
So as to obtain the above the uniformity in the image quality, a further high accurate positioning between the toner bearing body and the toner layer thickness regulating member is required.
Further, in the conventional techniques, to regulate a distance between the toner bearing body and the toner layer thickness regulating member, by providing a supporting plate etc. the above distance regulation is carried out, however they are fixed to the housing and are formed as a final embodiment.
In the above stated case, by an affect of the accuracy in the housing and an error in the installation, a twist etc. occur, accordingly there is a case in which the high accuracy positioning is obstructed.
Further, in the toner bearing body and the friction regulating member of the toner layer thickness regulating member, even there is only the inconvenience of the above stated positioning accuracy but also the extremely fine surface defects (the defects having 20-100 .mu.m), in the high precision image a clear image inconvenience occurs. Accordingly, there is an afraid in which in a mass production process a failure article mixes into.
In the above stated case, it is desirable to exchange easily the toner bearing body and the toner layer thickness regulating member.
Further, in the developing apparatus the toners being fine powder bodies are enclosed in the housing and it is difficult to mend the developing apparatus during a generation of the inconvenience. According to the circumstances there is a case in which it is necessary to carry out a disposal of the developing apparatus main body.
Further, recently a require for a recycling is heightened and then it is necessary to consider the recycling of an used article.
Herein, it is preferable to reuse the toners only through the repackaging of the toners, but in accordance with the treatment after the use, during the recovery and several times recycling etc., there is an afraid in which it is impossible to carry out the recycling because that the toner bearing body and the toner layer thickness regulating member are damaged and are worn out.